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SEXUAL abuse is a heinous crime, the affects of which spread like ripples in a pond through generations.

Victims I know have been mates. The unburdening of the tragic secrets of their youth came as a shock but almost immediately began to make sense of the course of their lives, their addictions and personalities.

The Royal Commission announced this week by Prime Minister Julia Gillard is long overdue. Sexual abuse of the young by

parents, relatives, people in authority and the clergy is a long, ugly stain on our national character.

It has left a terrible legacy.

The pages of this newspaper regularly recount those cases that make it through the many hurdles that confront victims to reach some form of justice in court. But many more say nothing, and with reason.

NSW Detective Chief

Inspector Peter Fox last week spoke courageously for victims when he detailed concerns about cover-ups by the Catholic Church and unholy alliances with the police service he worked for that made complaints disappear.

His voice finally left the avoiders and deniers with nowhere else to go but to confront the issue.

The Prime Minister's Royal Commission is a signal to victims that they matter more than the power and influence exerted in quiet corners by this country's elite, whether they are from religious denominations or state institutions and departments. Whether that signal becomes a reality time will tell.

What is certain is that too many Royal Commissions have not proceeded to the prosecution of those involved and those who knew and didn't act.

Some powerful church leaders of various Christian denominations in this country have failed to do their duty under law in relation to sexual abuse.

They clearly must have had the ear of some with influence within the police, judiciary and parliament.

There are no grey areas. The law is explicit.

The air must be cleared.

This Royal Commission should be a coming of age for an Australia that has remained too smug by half about its good fortune, its best-place-in-the-world-to-live status and its refusal to face reality.

It's an illusion that has left too many of us deluded.

We bleat about the treatment of sheep bred for slaughter but are mute on the circumstance of many of our indigenous peoples; we wave our compassion like a flag but punish on god-forsaken islands those who come asking for our help.

Love of country and belief in a God are one thing.

But blind faith in the human beings that represent the day-to-day reality of those concepts is pure folly.